Earache, hoarseness, beware of thyroid cancer

Common symptoms in the late stages of thyroid cancer are a lump in the neck, difficulty swallowing, and pain in the front of the neck that can spread to the ear.

According to Dr. Tran Minh Bao Luan, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, thyroid cancer can occur at any age, most commonly between 60-70 for men and 40-50 for women. Women are more affected than men with a ratio of 3:1.

Photo: Health.

The cause of thyroid cancer is not yet clearly determined. However, there are some risk factors that have been recorded such as iodine deficiency in the daily diet, exposure to radiation due to previous treatment for head or neck cancer, exposure to radioactive herbicides, radiation from nuclear weapons, nuclear power plant accidents, and genetics.

Certain inherited genetic defects that run in families make people more susceptible to thyroid cancer as well as other types of cancer.

This disease is often asymptomatic in the early stages, and is only detected through thyroid ultrasound during routine health check-ups. In the late stages, patients may experience a lump in the neck, difficulty swallowing, pain in the front of the neck that sometimes spreads to the ears, hoarseness or loss of voice, persistent cough, or difficulty breathing.

Usually this symptom is easily confused with other diseases such as laryngitis, pneumonia, lung cancer... Therefore, as soon as it starts, the patient should go to a medical facility immediately to detect the disease if any.

To accurately diagnose the disease, doctors often perform a thyroid ultrasound. If a thyroid nodule is found, a biopsy will be performed to obtain a sample of tumor tissue for observation.

Treatment for this disease is mainly total thyroidectomy combined with radiotherapy using radioactive iodine. If detected early, only one lobe of the thyroid gland needs to be removed, no need for combined radiotherapy.

For patients who have had their entire thyroid removed, thyroid hormone supplementation is required for life. In the case of radioactive iodine for radiation therapy, isolation is required for about 10 days for each radiation treatment session to avoid radiation exposure to those around them.

Thyroid cancer progresses very slowly, so patients treated at a late stage can still prolong their lives by 10-30 years.

Currently, there is no sure solution to prevent the disease. However, based on the risk factors of the disease, Dr. Bao Luan recommends that everyone should supplement iodine in their daily diet by using iodized salt.

Avoid contact with radioactive herbicides, avoid living in or visiting areas contaminated by nuclear power accidents... Some people with genetic defects should consider prophylactic thyroidectomy.

"You should have regular ultrasound screening even if you don't see any symptoms of the disease. There is no sure solution to prevent thyroid cancer, so early detection and timely treatment is best," the doctor said.

According to VnExpress